Superbius et Praeiudicata
by TrivialQueen
Summary: Or Darcy, Wickham, and Catullus. Written for a class as part of a Latin Poetry Translation Assignment.
1. An Explanation

_Superbius et Praeiudicata_

or

Darcy, Wickham, and Catullus

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Disclaimer: I own a poster of Mister Darcy and several copies of Pride and Prejudice, but nothing more than that, all genius belongs to Ms. Jane Austen. The words of Gaius Valerius Catullus probably belong to public domain but I fear his hendecasyllabic wrath and will credit him anyway.___

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_

This first chapter will explain a bit about Catullus 51; the poem I chose to translate for a Latin assignment, as well as my thought process while translating, and what Fitzwilliam Darcy has to do with anything! The second chapter is a literal translation of the Latin in which Catullus 51 is written, and then the third chapter, which _I suggest you skip to_ (let's be honest) is a literary translation tying Catullus 51 to Pride and Prejudice.

I am a fourth semester Latin student, which means I am spending this spring semester reading and studying poetry in the golden age of Rome, reading such authors as Horace, Ovid, Vergil, and of course, Catullus. Catullus was a Roman poet born circa 84 BCE; his writing is quite varied going from epitaphs to parodies, lyric to love poems. In the works of Catullus we hear all about a great love affair between him and the enigmatic Lesbia. In class we were assigned to translate one of the poems by Catullus; the first part of the assignment had required us to write a literal translation of the Latin text, remaining as true to the text as possible without sounding off in English. The second part of the assignment was to then adapt the literal translation to a literary one. We could do whatever we want with the literary translation so long as we stayed true to the general themes and tones of the poem. The last component was for us to write a brief essay explaining our choices in regards to the literal and literary translation; I have included it here if you would like some background on what is going on with either translation.

Catullus 51, an adaptation of a Greek poem by the female poet Sappho captures the physical reactions of love at first sight. Catullus expands on this theme of love to include the enigmatic Lesbia, his muse, as well as the concept of leisure. In the literal Latin translation the introduction of _otium _or leisure in line thirteen seems odd. Catullus jumps from describing how he feels when he sees Lesbia – ho his body reacts to her presence – to decrying having too much free time on his hands. The text does not make the connection between these two things clear. This is where I started thinking about my literary translation.

My hypothesis is this, when Catullus refers to leisure as bothersome he is speaking of the fact that his having leisure time on his hands is how he ended up in the tongue-tied predicament he is currently in. Leisure gave him time to meet Lesbia, fall in love, and play the fool. If he had a job he would be busy, not love-sick. The destruction of Kings in line fifteen show how no man is immune to a beautiful woman, my mind linked this idea with the Biblical story of King David as well as the Leonard Cohen song 'Hallelujah'.

The first time I read this poem I pictured Catullus spying on Lesbia and her date from behind a plant in a fancy restaurant. It would make for a funny moment in a sitcom, what with Catullus peeking at her, ducking, freaking out, then peeking again; but there was no poetry it. My mind then went to Jane Austen. I've been rereading _Pride and Prejudice_ and with Colin Firth, the one true Mr. Darcy, winning an Oscar last week I have had Lizzie Bennett on the Brain. I also believe the story of _Pride and Prejudice_ is comparable to this poem on three fronts: the problems of leisure the power of love to render one speechless, and a man who appears to be like a God.

By definition Fitzwilliam Darcy is a gentleman of leisure, his considerable income (£10,000 a year) comes from his tenants who rent land he owns. He is not a tradesman or another sort of professional such as a Doctor or Lawyer. Being born into so much money Mr. Darcy can partake of leisurely activities such as hunting and ballroom dancing. This leisure time brings him to Meryton and introduces him to Miss Elizabeth Bennett. Darcy experiences many of the feelings described in Catullus' work in particular he seems to be unable to so much as speak to Elizabeth. She takes this as a slight when in actuality t is a physical manifestation of an ardent admiration. This is the only way I can explain why Darcy goes through so much of the novel not actually interacting with Elizabeth.

In the later part of the novel Jane, Elizabeth's older sister, compares Mr. Darcy and George Wickham, saying: _"__One has_ _got_ _all the goodness_, _and the other all the appearance of it_". Elizabeth's impressions of the two men, Darcy and Wickham, and their personalities are the crux of the novel for the sake of this poetic interpretation one only needs to know that Wickham and Darcy are enemies and Wickham is very very charming and handsome. He appears perfect, he seems like a God, but Darcy and soon Elizabeth know that appearances can be deceiving.

I choose not to write this poem in meter because I'm not very comfortable with English metrics and the names of the characters were so long they would throw off lines. Instead I choose to count words. Each of my stanzas is four lines long, the first line has four words, and the other three have six words. The word count was purely arbitrary however I choose to make the first line short because in many of the Latin poems we read the last line was shorter than the first so I thought it'd be different. The last stanza is different. The last stanza of this poem has three lines so that it is set apart from the rest of the poem. The first seven stanzas are written in the second person where the narrator both describes what Darcy is thinking and feeling as well as directly addressing him. In the last stanza the point of view shifts to a third person omniscient narration and pertains more to the overall plot of the novel rather than the inner workings of a fictional character.


	2. Catullus 51, A Literal Translation

_Superbius et Praeiudicata_

or

Darcy, Wickham, and Catullus

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Disclaimer: Gaius Valerius Catullus translated this poem from Greek into Latin, the original poet was a Greek woman named Sappho. I myself did the following translation from Latin into English. All errors are mine.

___Note: http: / parrottgal. livejournal .com/ 26132 .html has an audio file of the original Latin text read (with rather poor pronunciation) by me if you are interested in hearing the poem in its original form. http:/ www. flf. vu. lt /kfk/ audio/ CatullusCarm51. mp3, Poems written in Sapphic meter such as this were often sung, this is a file to a modern rendition of Catullus 51 sung in Latin.

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Catullus 51

That man seems to me to be equal to a God.

That man, if divine law permits it, seems to surpass the Gods.

He who sitting across from you

repeatedly watches and listens to you.

.

Laughing sweetly which snatches away the senses from miserable me

for as soon as I have seen you, Lesbia, nothing remains

of my voice.

.

But my tongue becomes immobile

a thin flame flows down my numb limbs

my ears ring with their own sound

my eyes are covered with twin night

.

Leisure, Catullus, is bothersome to you

In leisure revel and enjoy too much

Leisure has destroyed kings before

and blessed cities.


	3. A Man of Leisure, A Literary Translation

_Superbius et Praeiudicata_

or_  
_

Darcy, Wickham, and Catullus

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Disclaimer: Whist I am looking for my own Mr. Darcy this one belongs to Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Austen.

_Note: And without further ado, the poem the last two chapters has been setting you up for. Tell me what you think and I will tell you what grade I received._

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A Man of Leisure

George Wickham, of course

Handsome, charming, God-like George Wickham

Able to make her laugh sweetly

Satan was a demi-God once

.

George Wickham, her choice

He sits, receives her attention undeservingly

Unlike you, Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley

Man of ten Thousand a year

.

Proud, Rich, Silent Darcy

That is what she sees. Thinks

silence is because she is low

Silence, because of your clay tongue

.

A gentleman of leisure

Connections, one cannot forget her connections

If you were anyone else You

could, you would, it wouldn't matter

.

She is a Goddess

That is why you avoid her

Blood singing the world falls away

One cannot hold conversation that way

.

Robbing you of breath

She will never know, you will

Never say what ensnares your mind

Thus George Wickham takes your place

.

You hate all this

Gentlemanly leisure introduced you to her

In a most un-gentleman like manner

You must watch him take her

.

A truth universally acknowledged

Fitzwilliam Darcy ardently loves and admires

Elizabeth Bennett but George Wickham interferes


End file.
